The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Chouans by Honore de Balzac: a time out of her reflections. The sentinels stationed at the Porte
Saint-Leonard refused to allow ingress to the strangers, and she was
therefore obliged to exhibit the ministerial order. This at once gave
her safety in entering the town, but the postilion could find no other
place for her to stop at than the Poste inn.
"Madame," said the Blue whose life she had saved. "If you ever want a
sabre to deal some special blow, my life is yours. I am good for that.
My name is Jean Falcon, otherwise called Beau-Pied, sergeant of the
first company of Hulot's veterans, seventy-second half-brigade,
nicknamed 'Les Mayencais.' Excuse my vanity; I can only offer you the
soul of a sergeant, but that's at your service."
 The Chouans |